Aerannis

despite the interesting, and at times wonderfully bonkers, world building, i can't recommend this game largely due to the bonkers controls and a few design elements that feel tacked on and could have been fleshed out better.

[h1]Quick Verdict[/h1] All in all, a fun little indie game. It takes a little getting into, but once you've passed the second mission and gotten used to the controls, it goes pretty quickly. I probably wouldn't go out of my way to buy it if I had a huge backlog. But if you have it and want a relatively mindless experience with a tiny modicum of challenge, then it's a good one to play and finish over a weekend. [h1]The GOOD[/h1] Controls were tight. Character movement didn't too floaty or anything. Some light stealth options. But other than maybe two missions that require absolute stealth, you can also win by going in with guns blazing or shifting to attack when you fail in stealth. Some of the missions are just about getting to the end of the level. In other cases there are bosses, which are pretty varied in their appearances and attacks. I'd say they're quite easy to beat with just a little thought to identify the pattern. Two different endings (I think). You can load your previous game to replay just the end, so no need to go through an entirely new playthrough. [h1]The BAD (or at least less good in this case)[/h1] One thing the game would benefit from is a map. I got lost a couple of times and it was frustrating running back and forth to find the target building, but fortunately the locations aren't too big, so ultimately I found what I was looking for. [h1] The NEUTRAL[/h1] The story line made sense in a weird way. The idea of making trans population persecuted felt like a SJW message, but it was a creative way of doing it.

Its fun, made with care and with great music. You dont need much time to note that.

I really wanted to like this game. It is cute and seemed to have my sense of snark. I downloaded it and couldn't get past the first boss of the game. Not because it's hard mind you but because the game crashes. Since there's not much activity since it's release, I don't expect it to be fixed. That is really unfortunate because I thought this game looked like it had a lot of potential. If you have a Mac OS machine, don't bother. It doesn't work well on it.

This game is truly a gem. At face value this looks like an amazing, dystopian-futuristic, megaman style platformer but it truly is so much more to than just run-and-shoot adventure. It is also more than a game that is inclusive to trans and queer like many reviewers have already mentioned. One of the biggest points and topics of discussion this game brings up (that is often missed) to me is its story about how the world of Aerannis came to be. That is when it really hit me: This is a game about western society. This is a game about us. This is a game that takes place in a world where men and males no longer have a place in society. The remaining males have either been seemingly forced out of existence have undergone sex changes to become female. This is the only way that males function in the society of Aerannis. These men are forced to live in the fringes and outskirts of society and are called "snowflakes." They are harassed and treated poorly. I could not help but think of parallels to "snowflakes" in the real world, where people get called a "snowflake" for being over sensitive or over virtue signaling, and the term is generally used by the political-right as an insult. In this world the patriarchy was destroyed by women and women reigns supreme over everything and everyone. Some of the female leaders actually look like pixel versions of some popular feminists that you might recognize (the leader looks like Anita and you may see some familiar looking super heavy looking females with awfully brightly colored hair). It seems to me that a world of radical feminism is what the author was trying to portray, and all the harassment, insults, and unfair treatment that the player will witness is not there for inclusiveness alone. The harassment and the insults are directed at all of us players, not as males or females but as human people. Aerannis is the kind of world we will create if we continue to destroy the men of western society, and mindlessly spread the ideals of radical feminism. Actual game review: Story - There is a lot going on in the story of this game, and while the dialogue is engaging and gritty with a very "real" feel to it, I found following the story kind of confusing at times. The dialogue text only stays on the screen for a few seconds so if you're not a fast reader then you will likely miss something important since all this games story is through dialogue or short cut scenes with text. I only wish the game would let you press next instead of it going to the next text bubble on its own. Gameplay - your character feels kinda slow and floaty in a bad way at first. You do get some power ups which make certain aspects of gameplay more fun and allow access to new areas. There are combat missions where you basically go into a building Cowboy Bebop style and kill everyone, and there are some stealth type missions and both are fairly fun. I think the gameplay would have been a lot more fun with some Bananza Bros (genesis) style shoot-outs where you could shoot from a corner and then hide back into it, but overall its good. There was just one helicopter chase sequence that gave me a lot of trouble due to the types of powerups I had at the time I kept jumping off walls back into the helicopter... The dev should take a look at this because it was a frustrating experience but otherwise the gameplay was good. Probably a 7/10 by itself. Music: Sooo good. If you like 80's style trance wave music at all you're in for a treat. This is one of those games I would play again for the sound track alone. Not only is the music great but it fits the games scenery and storyline really well. It really makes me wonder whether the music was made for the game or vice versa! The good: Great game. It is such a unique experience that I think any gamer would be happy to play this one all the way through. Took me about 7.5hrs to complete the game once. I would say it is worth playing for just the narrative and story alone. The bad: The run and shooty gameplay might be too bland for some. Overall: 8/10 - Definitely worth playing!

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TL;DR- Gameplay: 6/10 Story and Characters: 5/10 Graphics: 7/10 Music & Sound: 7/10 Replay value: 3/10 Length: 2/10 A game where, if tentacled monsters control the media, and if media screws over women, even in a women-only place, then tentacles really are hazardous to women’s health: TRANS-itive Property/10 Ok, maybe the /10 joke was in poor taste, but as far as the game goes, I’m not exactly wrong. -REVIEW- You guys remember those Assassins Creed Chronicles games? They’re basically stealth games for the most part, except that they’re side scrollers, which kind of blew me away at the time. I’ve played a few stealth games before(notably MGS2), and I’m honestly not a fan of them, especially those ACC games. Having to sneak quietly around enemy forces, sometimes without being able to fight them, doesn’t exactly win me over when getting caught brings the heavenly host of bad guys down on me, and it certainly won’t help if you make it a side scroller. Those ACC games were boring, stupid, and pointless; they certainly aren’t doing the franchise any favors if the mainline games are practically open-world by comparison. By comparison, Aerannis is practically an award winning title. Does it do as well if examined on its own? YES! Well, mostly. Before I even get to talking about the game, I want to say this real fast: I believe that trans lives are human lives. If you take offense to this, then kindly stop reading the review and go away. Everyone else, keep going. Let’s start with the story. Aerannis is basically a game that, behind the scenes, sought to show people, through the setting of a futuristic dystopia filled with women, nonsensical platforming in hub levels, and The Illuminati if they watched too many anime shows filled with tentacles, how transgender people have it rough with life in general(which they certainly do, from what I know). You play as Ceyda, an assassin for hire(NO, this game has nothing to do with ACC, thank goodness) who lives in a fictional province, Plovdiv, populated entirely by women. The plot kicks off when Ceyda is hired to find stolen power suits, only to stumble upon a conspiracy that basically reveals the supposedly peaceful and happy state of Plovdiv to be a media-based puppet show put together by the Illums. No, I didn’t make that name up. What follows is Ceyda being put on various assassination missions, largely depending on stealth mechanics, as she fights to figure out what these one eyed monsters are up to and how to reveal their BS to the public. Ultimately, the story is enjoyable and fits quite well with the gameplay style, being both fairly mysterious as to what’s going on, yet also fairly comedic as characters throw funny barbs around here and there. The dialogue itself is a winner simply because it fits with the high action game; discussions are quick and to the point, and a clear purpose is given to every mission. On the downside, however…well, the story is great, but the background and setting are sorely lacking. For one, the worldbuilding is not really there. Sure, there are three notable locations: Plovdiv, the fairly generalized city with crazy tall buildings, Planina, a society of uniform women hoping to find a way to bring men back into the world, and the TERF Turf(I couldn’t make that up if I tried), or as I like to call it, the Republic of Misandria. The issue is, how was this whole province founded? Why exactly did they kick all the men out? What even happened to the men to begin with? More questions still bounce around my head with the characters in general, such as Ceyda’s whole background, not to mention if her gender change was willing or forcibly done, how the Ilums even snaked their way into society to begin with, and even how Ceyda got the power I won’t spoil in one of the endings. Actually, the other ending is pretty confusing as well, where’d that monstrosity come from? Basically, the story that we’re given is enjoyable, but I wish there’d been more lore as far as the province, the people, all that background stuff. Ok, on to gameplay. As I said, Aerannis succeeds where ACC fails simply because the stealth and platforming blend incredibly well. The game keeps things fast, for starters. Yeah, you may have to wait around for guards to position themselves here and there, but as soon as an enemy has their back turn, it’s grab, kill, move on. Stealth kills are further emphasized by having regular shots deal less damage to “grab foes,” as I call them, especially those with armor. You also get a few tools to assist you: a noisemaker to distract foes, a proximity explosive, and a boomerang for the occasional out of reach button. The levels vary in length, but I feel the challenge scales very well, with easy levels to start, and more challenging locales toward the end. Finally, the metroidvania-esque layout gives good reason to explore everywhere and see what the world has to offer. Of course, there are problems. For one, and maybe it’s just me, but I’m not a fan of the “you get spied, you get died” levels; it’s irritating enough without the knowledge that being caught means restarting the whole section of level you were on. I get the emphasis on stealth, and I know story reasons were given, but it’s such a downer knowing some levels can be as punishing as MGS2’s highest difficulty, regardless of how quickly the game over screen can be skipped. Also, while it isn’t a deal breaker, I’ve noticed the camera gets a bit janky and occasionally lags behind center position. Finally…look, I get it, there’s platforming, but why are some of the city zones a pain to navigate? Planina and TERF usually require a lot of jumping around and such for some reason, which can drag things a bit. Certainly doesn’t help that this ‘vania lacks, of all things, A MAP. That said, the aesthetics are well done. I’m a sucker for pixel art, and it all looks great here, especially the few close-ups of Ceyda. I do wish the color purple hadn’t been used QUITE so much, as it tends to stale up the backgrounds a bit. Music and sound are lively and good as well; I rather enjoy the variety in the tunes; some are lively and others more mysterious. I don’t usually dig the idea of games used for causes that risk political ire, but I stand behind this one; the action is fun, it looks and sounds great, and putting its message behind a solidly morbid and dystopian setting gives me the idea that I’m enjoying a game rather than sitting through a forced lecture. Props to the dev for experimenting with this one. Thanks for reading!

Poorly assembled dumpster fire of a game with awful dialogue.